Otis English Decorates Tragedy With Love-Song Stylings on ‘Trigger': PopCrush Premiere

If you're trying to quit smoking, you can invest in patches, abstain cold turkey or — to borrow a page from Otis English's book — apply your addictive struggle to a moody, contentedly detached song.

The L.A.-based soul-pop artist, who made his debut with the Hype Machine-topping "Young Kids, Old Love" in August, premieres his brand new "Trigger" today via PopCrush, and he's not afraid to show his scars. The song speaks to the onset of chaos, but its recitation is firm and encouraging, and English's voice barrels through gloom like daylight cleaving through clouds.

"All I have and all I am / Is burned to the ground with my own hands / I let you come around, make your mess / My hand's on the trigger, we're back here again," he grieves over soft piano progressions that expand with drums into cinematic, orchestral sweeps.

English said he appreciated the challenge of making struggle sound like a love song, and explained the key to his songwriting is remaining sincere to his emotion — for better or worse.

"I think it's nice to be sad sometimes," he said. "It's human. It's natural. I was raised on blues music. That's just whats embedded in me."

And while English has so far been likened to Adele and Ray LaMontagne, he remains focused on carving out his own sound. There's nothing better than the feeling of finally striking gold, he explained.

"Treating pen and paper as an experiment to see how far you can go is pretty fulfilling when you can get it right," he said.

Tell us what you think of "Trigger" below.

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